Lori Stokes

Television Reporter

Female

BornSep 16, 1962

Age52

HometownCleveland, Ohio

EthnicityAfrican American

Lori Stokes is co-anchor of Eyewitness News This Morning and Eyewitness News at Noon alongside Ken Rosato on WABC-TV in New York City. She joined the station on April 17, 2000 as part of an effort to increase ratings on WABC's morning newscast.

News + Updates

' By Michael Horowitz BRONX, NEW YORK, February 20- David Dinkins, the city''s only black mayor, was center stage at the borough''s Black History Month celebration, which Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., held in Co-op City''s Dreiser Loop Community Center auditorium. Dinkins, the guest of honor at the celebration that an estimated 200 Bronxites attended, stressed that the African-American trailblazers who came before him, most notably the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Manhattan Borough President...

' “I’m Lori Stokes!… I don’t have to yell!” the WABC-TV ‘Eyewitness News’ reporter shouted on June 6 while in the cavernous Capitale. Five hundred guests in the fields of real estate, finance, fashion and entertainment had gathered for a UJA-Federation of New York benefit, and Stokes fought to be heard above the echoing din. She told the crowd, “This morning, on ‘Eyewitness News’ at our 6 o’clock hour, I spoke about UJA-Federation… and it is not exclusive to...

Timeline

CHILDHOOD

TWENTIES

198623 Years Old
Lori Stokes began her journalistic career as the medical reporter and then weekend co-anchor at WCIA in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1986.
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Then, in 1988, Lori worked as a reporter and weekend anchor for WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina. There for two years, she became popular with the viewers in that state.<br /><br /> Next, Ms. Stokes worked as a crime and street reporter for WBFF-TV, the Fox Station in Baltimore, Maryland. Finally, Lori Stokes got hands on experience for full-time anchor as WJLA-TV's lead female anchor of the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. Read Less

Then Stokes went to MSNBC at the time of its inception. She was one of the original anchors on the 24-hour cable news television channel and the first African American to speak on the cable news network. MSNBC hired newcomer "girl in glasses" Ashleigh Banfield to MSNBC in 2000 and replaced Stokes on MSNBC'S Today in America also in 2000. During her tenure at NBC News Stokes was a rotating newsreader for "NBC Sunrise" and Weekend Today. Read Less

THIRTIES

199936 Years Old
During her tenure at the cable TV station, Stokes covered the Columbine High School Massacre and the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr. in 1999.
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Stokes was paired with Robb Hanrahan who, at the time, also co-anchored the station's 5 p.m. news with Roz Abrams and had previously co-anchored the morning news. The new pair, who replaced anchors Nancy Loo and David Ushery, did not work as well as WABC had hoped they would. Hanrahan was taken off the morning news in December 2000 and replaced with WABC-TV's weekend sports anchor Steve Bartelstein.<br /><br /> Stokes and Bartelstein proved to work well and eventually helped bring Eyewitness News This Morning back to the number one position it had enjoyed in previous years. The pair eventually took over anchoring duties for Eyewitness News at Noon, replacing Nancy Loo and David Ushery once again. Read Less

FORTIES

200340 Years Old
For a brief time in 2003, Stokes was removed from the noon newscast and replaced with Sade Baderinwa.
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Stokes resumed anchoring the noon newscast when Roz Abrams left the station and was replaced by Sade Baderinwa. Read Less